Nikki Haley, the lone Asian American, and lone woman, left running for president on the Republican side, isn’t quitting the race yet, despite an 11 point loss in New Hampshire.
Instead, she may be doing the country a big public service. As long as Haley keeps running, she baits Trump into showing u...
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said this week that
“America is not a racist country.”
And then Donald Trump proved her wrong by calling Haley by her Indian name--Nimarata Nikki Randhawa Haley— just to rile up the scores of racists in Trump’s Republican MAGA base.
Only Trump put an even...
And so we find ourselves this news cycle at a strange thematic confluence of democracy, MLK, and the Emmys.
Let’s take democracy first.
Over the weekend in Asia, our AAPI ancestral home, the pro-democracy movement appears strong, as voters in Taiwan have rejected threats from authoritarian Beijing...
Though a career journalist, I sometimes do theatrical one-man shows where I often tell jokes. When I do, I would prefer to kill.
It depends on my jokes, but killing could be seen as a constitutionally-protected right under the First Amendment.
Donald Trump wants the Constitution to protect him too...
I’ll get to the “Beef” at the Golden Globes, and the performance of comedian Jo Koy, all key historical Asian American first moments. But is anyone surprised there were no real political speeches given at the awards event on Sunday night?
Not a peep for the earth, global warning, or any of the worl...
If you’re a person of color, it’s hard not to feel the pain of Claudine Gay.
As an Asian American alumnus of Harvard, it hurts even more.
Being a BIPOC person with a Harvard degree has always made you a target. The racist assumptions never fade. Why are you here? Because of your race? Your gender?...
The war is not over in the two major geo-political flashpoints of the day.
I am, however, proud to report I witnessed the end of a significant AAPI culture war--the end of a feud, essentially a “lit war,” over the question, “What is an authentic Asian American story?”
Or at least, ”What’s our stor...
I am moved to extend you the gift of history. President Joe Biden made me do it.
But first, consider the stark contrast in the recent immigration-speak from the two vying for your attention in 2024.
Last weekend, Donald Trump was on the campaign trail in Iowa denouncing immigrants: “They’re ruinin...
Shohei Ohtani? It’s Japanese for “new era in American race history,” or at least, that’s what I’m calling it.
You doubt that? Ohtani’s ascendence is not unlike what happened when Jackie Robinson broke a color barrier in baseball.
Ohtani broke a race barrier too, and combined it with the smashing o...
If you haven’t realized it yet, the congressional hearing last week that continues to make news wasn’t about solving rising antisemitism in America in the shadows of the Israel-Hamas war.
That was the given pretext for the hearing, but it really served as a platform for an outright attack by right-...
If you don’t remember how special December 7th is, I get it.
You’re busy. You’re likely traumatized after last night’s GOP presidential debate, where Vivek Ramaswamy attacked fellow South Asian pol Nikki Haley for Americanizing her name and playing identity politics.
But then fellow debater Chris ...
Asian Americans can be blunt about Henry Kissinger. He carpet-bombed Cambodia. He napalmed the hell out of Vietnam, a war that he should be pilloried for extending rather than praised for ending. But in a depraved war mongering world, it got him a Nobel Peace Prize. AAPIs who survived Kissinger’s da...
Post-Thanksgiving week’s Black Friday was more like “Asian Friday” with a little something extra to be thankful for, if you were following world news from the Middle East.
One expected to see the 13 Israeli women and children swapped out for 39 Palestinians in the first major exchange of hostages o...
It should have been a perfect weekend. It included Bowen Yang on SNL playing an airport TSA guy named Umberto. When asked if he were Spanish, Yang in character declared, “I’m Filipino…Your Boy’s Pinoy!”
Now that’s a great AAPI weekend-- in most cases.
But even when my football team won (the 49ers–...
My dilemma this week? I could go to that capitalist meet-up known as APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation), or I could have a root canal.
Speaking of canals, I would prefer a vacation in Venice.
But as I have an actual tooth issue, I skipped my chance to go to APEC in San Francisco and saw my ...
An Interview with Theodore S. Gonsalves, editor of “Smithsonian Asian Pacific American History, Art, and Culture in 101 Objects.”
Maybe it was the coincidence of the weekend holiday, but when you look at the three Congressional Gold Medals given to Chinese American, Filipino American and Japanese A...
Some of my heroes are Poles, like the late great Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko, but polls, I don’t care for much.
I’ll write about them, sure, but usually they say nothing about Asian Americans and what we think. There’s barely enough to mention what Blacks or Hispanics think. At best, with ...
If ever there was an argument for cameras in the courtroom, it was last Monday when Donald Trump took the witness stand for three-and-a-half hours in his civil fraud case in Manhattan and made a mockery of the legal system–and of our democracy.
Again.
If you and I had pulled a stunt like that, we’...
I didn’t want to let the Nov.1 deadline for the so-called “Common App” go without mention. If you missed it, there’s still time to get your application in to the school of your choice, since many schools still have admissions deadlines into January.
But if you want to apply to Harvard, the litigant...
Filipino American History Month comes to a close on Halloween, and what better way to usher it out than in costume as your favorite Filipino historical figure.
This Halloween, I will don a ranch-style jean jacket and parade through the Central Valley holding up a cigar with seven fingers in honor o...
